The problem is that you’d have to live up there. Maybe for double for not for 25%

Prince Rupert a great place ………… to be from

Sounds like the survey was conducted prior to the drop in oil prices. Does anyone know?

So what does income growth mean? Averaged total of all respondents, for instance? How about time period. One year does not sound right.

Incomplete information.

How about cost of living? Income and income growth is one thing. To offset that what is the cost of living and change in cost of living. For instance, what is the housing cost over the time period considered?

I’m not even sure what this survey is trying to say. In today’s environment, it’s impossible to boil everything down to one meaningless category like “best city for work”.

My first question is what type of work? I’d also want to know what industry. Work life balance is something else that would be very important for me. Did the survey consider that?

I guess it could be an ok city to work in but there is nothing to do there. If you want to go shopping you drive to Grande Prairie. Nothing resembling culture. Just a bunch of eating and drinking joints lined up with people with disposable income ready to part with it. And lets not forget 15 places to get my pickup truck customized.

I would be very interesting to see when this survey was conducted. From what I understand, things in Fort St. John have slowed considerably due to the rapid and steep decline in energy prices.

There are new homes sitting empty, unsold for well over 6 months now! Some are hoping that Site C will be their salvation!

Alberta has taken a huge blow to it’s economy and the downturn has definitely spilled over into both Dawson Creek and Fort St. John. Apparently Fort Nelson has been hit even worse!

Things are rather stormy in Alberta and Northeastern BC is already clouding over!

Sunny Ways my friends, Sunny Ways!

NOT!

You must mean Saudi Ways, Saudi Ways.

I agree with PGguy1234,

I’ve never seen a community that lacks any sense of culture. There’s nothing that seemed iconic to FSJ. Just a bunch of things built on a highway. Some nice homes, but insane costs to own one.

I wouldn’t pay a premium to live in FSJ, and I would probably accept a 30% reduction in pay to live somewhere else.

I lived up there for a while. I won’t go back. Housing prices were insane and rental prices were ridiculous as well. You’d need to be pulling down a six figure income just to afford housing up there. The water is bad, the roads are bad, the infrastructure is bad….its not a nice place to live.

That said…there are some really nice folks up there. I’ve met some wonderful friends who still live in FSJ.

I really didn’t feel the need to shop in Grande Prairie all that often. FSJ had everything you needed. Sure, prices were a bit cheaper in GP but you’d have to factor in the 2 hour drive AND the stupid south Taylor hill in the winter. Get a few trucks spun out on that sucker and your nice trip to the big city turns into a 4 hour wait at the top of that friggin hill.

FSJ? No thanks.

No need too worry. Christy has called everyone from BC home from Alberta to work on LNG.

Ft St John isn’t soo bad. I have steady good paying work and on days off I can either bugger off down to PG or do outdoors stuff around town. If people think it is going to be a crappy town then it will be a crappy town. I’m OK with the rental prices currently as well I have a full furnished room that is warm for 500 a month.

Pomeroy Center is world class and iconic for a northern city, but other than that there is more to life than living in a dusty isolated work town.

I think the nicest place to live in the Northeast would be Chetwynd where they have probably the best weather in Northern BC North of Quesnel.

GDP use to be made up primarily of main street business and actual wage earning business. Nowadays GDP is made up of a majority from financial wealth. Cities can produce no real wealth, but on paper be seen as wealthy. A survey like this survey on the best places to work are like grading a community through the view of a straw.

Once again, Dawson Creek ranks way higher than PG on another survey. When a dump like DC tops us, it tells me that PG is in pretty bad shape.

Keep in mind the rankings are for “Best Places FOR Work” which is not to be confused with “Best Places TO Work” or “Best Places to Live”. People wind up in places like FSJohn and Fort Mac for the opportunity to work and make money; opportunities that are more numerous and lucrative than wherever they came from. Things are slower there now than they were a year ago which is to say it’s just busy now instead of crazy busy. Two new hotels opened in the past 18 months and 2 more are under construction today, scheduled to open in 2016. More new restaurants opened earlier this year and more are under construction. Clearly these businesses are ramping up for Site C. I frequently run into PG folks who are up there working on construction projects or providing other services. Oil prices may be impacting Fort Mac but FSJohn not nearly as much due to the diversity of a city that also serves the natural gas sector, forest sector and farming/agriculture. Heavy trucks and equipment working on natural gas activities are very much noticable there. While the oil industry is big there it’s not like they are absolutely reliant on it not unlike PG used to be reliant on the forest sector.